TV-Radio notebook: Taking trip down Hall of Fame lane

Taking a trip down Hall of Fame laneCooperstown always brings out a blast from past

DAVID BARRON, Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Friday, June 3, 2011

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"One For the Books: Baseball Records & the Stories Behind Them" includes Nolan Ryan’s caps from each of his seven no-hitters.

"One For the Books: Baseball Records & the Stories Behind Them" includes Nolan Ryan’s caps from each of his seven no-hitters.

Photo: AP

TV-Radio notebook: Taking trip down Hall of Fame lane

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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Since I was in the neighborhood for the AHL Calder Cup finals, I couldn’t pass up spending Thursday’s off day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

An early highlight was the chance to visit with Brad Horn, the former Houston resident who directs the Hall of Fame’s public relations and outreach programs.

Just to keep on Milo Hamilton’s good side, I did make a quick visit upon arrival to the Scribes and Mikemen exhibit, which is located upstairs from the vaulted hall that hosts the Hall of Famers plaques, to see how the broadcasters are treated here at Cooperstown.

Hamilton, who along with former Astros announcers Gene Elston, Bob Prince and Harry Kalas, is a winner of the Hall’s Ford Frick Award, is featured in an audio exhibit that features the work of past Frick Award winners. Hamilton’s example, big surprise, is the top of the ninth inning of Mike Scott’s no-hitter against the Giants to clinch the 1986 National League West Division championship for the Astros.

The Astros also show up in Jack Buck’s contribution to the exhibit, his call of Roger Freed’s walk-off, pinch-hit grand slam off Joe Sambito that gave the Cardinals a 7-6 win over the Astros in 1979.

The Hall’s newest permanent exhibit is titled One For the Books: Baseball Records & the Stories Behind Them. Items include Joe DiMaggio’s locker from 1941, the year of his 56-game hitting streak, Nolan Ryan’s caps from each of his seven no-hitters, first base from the perfect game that wasn’t by Armando Galarraga and hundreds of more items.

I also had a brief tour of the Hall’s underground catacombs where curators have stored hundreds of game-used bats (I held a couple of Babe Ruth bats that, fortunately, have not been destroyed to make relic baseball cards), boxes and boxes of uniforms (including a wool uniform from John Bateman with the old Colt .45s) and a couple of Houston Buffs items.

Whenever I visit Halls of Fame or league-connected broadcasters like NFL Films, I always ask if there is a holy grail out there in the broadcast realm that remains elusive. For Steve Sabol at NFL Films, for example, it includes footage of Red Grange in action.

The Hall of Fame says it is well stocked on audio clips from across baseball’s history. As for video, Hall librarian Jim Gates says he is most interested in tracking down footage from Negro League games, from the World War II-era women’s leagues and from Mexican and Caribbean league games before World War II.

“Only a few minutes of Negro League games exist, so we would love to see more of that,” he said. “Major League Baseball does a good job of collecting their own history, so I don’t worry about that much. As for audio, most of the great moments that people are deserved. There aren’t many missing pieces that are in demand.”

Checks and balances

Barry Warner tells this story about former Aeros player and coach Terry Ruskowski, who is working with the team during the AHL Calder Cup finals against Binghamton.

Warner says he used to skate with the original Aeros during the 1970s, and one day Ruskowski and Gordie Howe pinned Warner in the locker room and shaved off one of his eyebrows and cut a hole in his beard.

"I’ve got a TV spot that I’m supposed to do in a week, so I had to go out and pay somebody to get me fake eyebrows and patch the hole in my beard so I could do the commercial," Warner said.

A few years later, Warner said he was playing with Ruskowski in a pickup hockey game at Sharpstown Ice Arena when Ruskowski decided to show Warner how the pros played.

"He hits me so hard that he lifts me up, I’m parallel to the ice at least 2 ½ feet in the air, and I hit my left ankle on the boards and break it," Warner said. "He later told me, ‘Barry, I’m sorry, but I have to tell you it might have been the best check I ever made in my life.’"

Rockets re-up with KILT

The Rockets extended their radio deal with KILT (610 AM), the team’s radio flagship since 2002. Terms of the deal, including its length, were not disclosed.

"Our fans have grown accustomed to finding Rockets games on SportsRadio 610," Rockets president Tad Brown said in a statement issued by the team. "We look forward to continuing this mutually beneficial partnership as we head into the 2011-12 season."

Play-by-play announcer Craig Ackerman and analyst and studio host Joel Blank will return for next season. The deal also provides access to players, coaches and executives on the station’s Rockets Power Hour and a weekly morning segment with GM Daryl Morey.

Ratings not as hot for Heat

Even the Miami Heat’s big three can’t get the NBA Finals into double digits. Game 1 had a 9.0 Nielsen rating with an average audience of 15.1 million viewers, up from 8.6 with 14 million viewers for Celtics-Lakers Game 1 last year and the best since 9.8 with 15.3 million viewers for the Pistons-Lakers opener in 2004.

The NBA and ABC/ESPN, of course, are pumped over these numbers, which only goes to show you how far things have disintegrated for the league. Michael Wilbon was enthusing on ESPN.com that the series has a chance to be the highest-rated for a series not involving Michael Jordan since Rockets-Magic in 1995, which, at the time, was considered to have a disappointing Nielsen average at 13.9.

Houston ranked 10th in the nation for Game 1 with a 12.9 rating. Miami and Dallas-Fort Worth rated 31.9 and 29.9, respectively.

Other basketball updates: TNT averaged a 3.5 Nielsen rating, 5.5 million total viewers and 3.99 million households for its 40 NBA playoff games, with each number representing at least a 25 percent increase over last year. The Eastern Conference finals between the Heat and Bulls had the highest ratings ever for a conference finals on cable and averaged a 6.2 rating, 10.5 million total viewers and 7.19 million households. Each number represented a boost of at least 29 percent over last year. … Charles Barkley on new Rockets coach Kevin McHale: "The best player I played against."

Four DVRs, no waiting

The Rockets’ news conference with new coach Kevin McHale will air live at 10 a.m. today on Fox Sports Houston. …

Ryan Stewart, co-host with his brother Doug Stewart of the Two Live Stews show from WQXI in Atlanta that airs on Sporting News Radio, says in an e-mail that the show’s run on SNR will end, apparently on July 1. Network officials have not commented on the change, which presumably clears the way for SNR to pick up KGOW (1560 AM) host Sean Pendergast for the afternoon time slot. …

Did you see the Longhorn Network promo right after the first half of NBA Finals Game 1 on ABC? That’s an example of the cross-promotional oomph that Texas was buying when it opted to partner with ESPN for the network, which is now scheduled to premiere Aug. 26. …

Speaking of which, Melinda Witmer, Time Warner Cable’s executive vice president and chief video and content officer, tells Multichannel News that the company will not attempt to purchase a minority stake in the network. …

Here’s a blast from the past, but from a different direction. Friend and former Chronicle colleague Ed Fowler, who was one of Dickie Rosenfeld’s first hires when KILT (610 AM) went all-sports in the early 1990s, will return to the air at 6 p.m. June 19 on KKHT (100.7 FM).

This time, however, Fowler, who after he left sportswriting graduated from seminary and is now an ordained minister in the Reformed Episcopal Church, will co-host with the Rev. Jonthan Treblico a show titled Lift Up Your Hearts.

The Rev. Mr. Fowler (I do believe this may be the first time those words have appeared in the Chronicle in that particular order) says the show will focus on the who, what, why, where, when and how of worship. …

The current version of NFL’s Top 100 continues at 7 p.m. Sunday with players 50 through 41. We know that two Texans remain to be cited: wide receiver Andre Johnson would seem to be a shoo-in, which would leave the other as either Matt Schaub, Arian Foster or DeMeco Ryans, I presume. …

James Anderson, who helped spearhead Gene Elston’s candidacy for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Frick Award, is now trying to drum up support to have Elston declared a Texas Hero alongside the likes of Earl Campbell, Nolan Ryan and Bum Phillips. …

The Indianapolis 500 on ABC had a 3.9 Nielsen rating with 6.5 million viewers, up 8 percent and 12 percent, respectively, from 3.6 with 5.8 million viewers last year. Fox’s NASCAR Coca Cola 600 had a 4.5 prime time rating with 8.1 million viewers, up 13 percent and 24, percent, respectively, from 4.0 and 6.5 million. …

The UEFA Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United had a 1.4 Nielsen rating and 4 share on Fox Sports, and the Fox Deportes Spanish-language broadcast had a 0.7/2 rating/share. Last year’s game between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich had a combined 1.2 rating.

Verne Lundquist will tune up for SEC games this fall by calling three Broncos preseason games on a Denver station, according to the Denver Post, including an Aug. 11 game against the Cowboys, for whom he did radio games in the 1970s and ‘80s. …

ABC and ESPN have picked up a raft of SEC games, including Oregon-LSU from Arlington at 7 p.m. Sept. 3 on ABC, LSU-Mississippi State at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, on ESPN and LSU-West Virginia on Sept. 24 on a network to be determined. Also, CBS has penciled in Arkansas-LSU at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 25. …

Chris Evert has signed on to work Wimbledon and the U.S. Open for ESPN. … Former Olympic team members Michele Smith and Jessica Mendoza are helping ESPN call the softball College World Series this week. … The Big Ten Network henceforth will be known as BTN. …

ESPN’s Outside the Lines at 8 a.m. Sunday will examine the false positive drug test that briefly resulted in WNBA star Diana Taurasi being suspended. Taurasi subsequently was cleared, and the World Anti-Doping Agency has suspended its association with the Turkish doping control center that issued the faulty test results for Taurasi and three other female athletes.